While Hal touches on a broad range of subjects from digital distribution to online trolls to the slow death of gaming magazines, we took special notice of his comments on the politics of gaming:

"Games will be respected soon because gamers will grow up and become politicians."

I get this one all the time. And sure, it makes perfect sense in theory, but the reality is that politicians - young and old - make political hay out of what they can. Just because the average age of gamers is in the early 30s and there are plenty of brilliant 40-somethings that are eager to get into public life doesn't mean that they won't exploit games when the opportunity arises. To believe that they would not is nothing short of wishful thinking.

Again, I'm willing to concede that 20 years from now we likely won't be dealing with First Amendment arguments about interactive entertainment, but that fact has little to do with the age of politicians... In the meantime, we're stuck in the trenches fighting misperceptions, negative stereotypes and ill-conceived legislation. To my mind, you can do one of two things: Get involved (IGDA and ECA come to mind) or shut up. Both organizations are quite easy to join. To put it another way, "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result."

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Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

I agree it has nothing to do with age of gamers. And yes, politicians will use anything and everything to get into office. But that doesn't explain one thing:
Why haven't any politicians, especially presidential candidates, been supporting games? That would create just as much controversy. Yet they all seem in unison to bash gaming.
I think it has to do with who games and who doesn't. Everything has been through this same controversy, but most has quieted down because people use them. People mention the violence on TV, but don't try to outlaw it because everyone watches TV.
People complain about porn on the internet, but don't do anything because everyone uses the internet.
But not everyone's a gamer. Therefore, that give politicians a very strong platform. They know they can tick people off this way, and get publicity.
Controversy sells.
It's the stuff JT and Rockstar thrive on.

As far as I can tell, we're beginning to see the start of what he's talking about. One reason I like Obama is that he doesn't do the doomsayer thing when it comes to popular culture, but instead says that the parents should turn off the TV/video games/etc. from time to time. Nothing wrong with that.

McCain's remained mute for the most part on this matter, so I'm not worried about him at all.

Now, will one of these guys please pick Hillary or Romney so my choice gets a whole lot easier? I can't make up my mind here.

"video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included. But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would."(empahsis added)

"That’s why I supported federal funding to study the impact of video games on children’s cognitive development."

Only if it looks like the video game industry is doing nothing. He cannot deny the FTC's numbers. They do not lie. The video game industry is doing more than any other entertainment media. He cannot with a clear conscience introduce legislation with the numbers backing the industry.

I actually support his position. If any industry is failing to protect their consumers or any other group, the government should step in to kick them in the pants and make them work.

As if facts have ever stopped a politician before. Why is it everyone is so quick to give him a pass?

His position for more government intervention based on arbitrary definitions is indeed most disagreeable. How do you propose this kick in the pants? Where does it start and where does it end, how much power are you willing to give the government over industry? For as much as we make fun of politicians for "protect the children" it would appear that "protect the consumer" may stand to be just as dangerous.

Right now, the ECA as a whole is working to give a collective voice in Washington in opposition to video game legislation. They also work on a state level.

The main benefit to you as an individual will come from joining one of the growing number of local ECA Chapters. These local chapters will be able to work to help bring a more positive light on gaming to your neighbors, media and local politicians.

But in a nutshell, the ECA will only do for you what you are willing to do for yourself. If you are not willing to voice your opinion to your representatives and media and other such work, you will get nothing out of an ECA membership.

Like any consumer group its working to try and balance the "interests"of big biz and consumers the trouble is in order to gain respect and notice you have to spend a few years kissing up and making the scene, this translates into nothing than softening up industry with some consumer focus, which amounts to words IE nothing as of yet.

I think I joined the right organization. I think I agreed with just about ebverything in his article. Especially digital distribution. It will never replace brick and mortor. But it will be a very profitable side business for many companies.

His comments on content and brand loyalty are also pretty spot on. With today's multi console homes, there is no reason to have these console wars. How many people here have a Wii and a 360, or a Wii and a PS3 or a PS3 and a 360 or all three?

Once again, 'doing something' shouldn't be limited to games alone, the whole reason that politicians make hay out of 'new fads' etc is because people are too gullible to find things out themselves. The problem that needs fixing isn't games, it's politics.

Is it truly politics that has a lock on itself via the status quo or the sheeple mentailtiy that reduce decent smart people into walking woolly feasts on 4 four legs? People need to to grow up and look beyond the mundanities before them.

People need to get more involved, I agree,politics has been the same throughout history, and people have fallen for it every single time.

We reserve the title 'the only intelligent race' for humanity, but when it comes to thinking individually and not simply going with the what the rest of the herd believes without checking the facts, it's actually a very rare occurence. Not because we are not intelligent, but because society lashes out at those that dare question the norm, it is afraid of change of having to adapt to new things, we constantly claim that the each generation's purpose is to out-do the last one, a system of constant improvement for humanity, but, really, how often do we actually live up to that big promise to ourselves? We don't listen, we tell young people that they 'are just kids' and that they'll understand when they are older.

We live in a society of Politicians and Lawyers attempting to vicariously live their lives through other peoples' children.

"Games will be respected soon because gamers will grow up and become politicians."

I think that contrary to what Hal says, this is somewhat true. Politicians that grew up as gamers will be familiar with them, and know that their contemporaries are familiar with them. Thus they will be less easily mislead by fringe groups, and they'll know that a significant chunk of voters grew up playing games. In short they won't see games as something to make hay out of, because they'll be familar with games, and they'll know their constituents are for the most part as well.

I disagree with the disagreements. People say that the politicians will continue to make issues out of nothing to garner votes, however, the people who are becoming/currently voters includes gamers, which has a huge teen base which will then move on to vote. and once a good chunk of the voting audience are gamers then politicans will realize it does them more harm then good to offend us. It may not happen by 2010 but I'd say a good deal of the controversy will be killed off in the 2010-20 decade.

"Games will be respected soon because gamers will grow up and become politicians."

THAT is naive. Even assuming that gamers do become politicians, they're unlikely to advertise their habits. In order for that to happen, games have to become acceptable to the public to the point where public disclosure doesn't hurt them more then it helps them. Not to say that's impossible, it's certainly not, it's just not likely in the near future. Chicken or the egg problem Hal, politicians can't force people to accept something if the conservative majority that holds their leash doesn't approve.

"Even if it was online gaming that somehow inspired him to kill his parents, he must have realised at some point that they wouldn't drop any good loot." - GP member, Doomsong

There will always be game-bashers, and people that attack gamers for being potentially dangerous or nerdy.

These people- in most of their lives, were deprived of things that would encourage one to be more open-minded. Even when gaming is more mainstream than ever, you would run into people that have grown in closed environments. But they will be farther and fewer in between.

You may be right to some extent but for instance, Jazz and rock and other such forms of music were, not all that long ago, considered very disruptive. Now most music from that time period is easily used and endorsed by most fronts. Heck Bill Clinton was even a fairly decent Jazz musician I heard.

So while 'soon' might be a little optimistic, I certianly wouldn't call it naive.

Maybe. Cultural change is sticky stuff. I'm not arguing that games will never become socially acceptable, just not anytime soon. I'm an old coot, I've seen 3 or 4 console generations and people arguing that games will be acceptable for almost all of that time. Hasn't happened yet.

Bottom line, politics is sticky business. If people want games to become socially acceptable, they have to change the mass cultural taboo that they are not, FIRST. Politicians won't do it. Even if it's what they believe, they can't afford to admit to what most of the public thinks is immature behavior. Not if they want to get elected. If Hal was basically saying the same thing, then I retract my accusation that he's being naive. I was wrong.

"Even if it was online gaming that somehow inspired him to kill his parents, he must have realised at some point that they wouldn't drop any good loot." - GP member, Doomsong

As the ECA grows, they will most likely branch out to other nations or partner with like organizations in other nations. If the time frame for ECA involvment in Canada is a little too long for you, perhaps you should do some of the leg work yourself and organize people in Canada. Just a suggestion.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm